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All posts for the month November, 2015

The attentive reader may recall that I have previously climbed Auckland harbour bridge. While in Sydney, off I went up its much more ambitious, iconic and grander cousin.

It is interesting to note that over 6 million rivets were used in construction. The two different types of steel came from either Middlesbrough in England (as for Auckland) or from Newcastle in Australia. Workers had no safety harnesses and 16 people died relating to construction…although not many from falling off. Workers who were hammering the white hot rivets into place had a bucket in which to catch them (!!)…you don’t try to make a diving catch in that scenario! The towers at the end are largely ornamental.

If you fall off from the top, it would take around 5 seconds to hit the water (134m from the top). During construction someone fell 50 metres into the harbour and went in feet first. His boots were ripped on impact and found halfway up his thighs and he survived with just 2 broken ribs. Lucky man.

It seems that whereas in NZ, they built a bridge and aimed small and tried to save money (and then had to expand the bridge), in Sydney, they built a bridge and aimed large to put Australia on the map. Sure, a tunnel has since been built as well but what a sight of the surroundings you get when you are up there. It really is a superb tourist activity and worth the expense.

Both bridges are interesting for different reasons, but this one is a better overall experience in my opinion.

A happy accident of the trip was the discovery that I was on something of a Ned Kelly trail. I visited the site of his last stand in Glenrowan, Victoria (which has a 6m high statue of Ned), and also the site of his execution at Old Melbourne Gaol. Ned is something of an Australian icon really – it is interesting how we like to glamourise and perhaps idolise criminals – but then I guess those of us who go through life without putting a foot wrong are kind of dull to the general public.

On that note, I was cautioned by the police in Sydney for jaywalking. Thankfully I played the ignorant tourist card and avoided a fine but it does help to be alert to the rules of where you are going. Lesson learned. Hardly in Ned’s league though – here was a man who received stolen goods, committed assault, stole horses and cattle, robbed banks, took hostages, and was planning to murder the police who were in pursuit of the gang by luring them to their doom.

Their plan was foiled however. We were told at Melbourne Gaol that Ned was shot 28 times (despite wearing a thick suit of armour fashioned from parts of a plough) and suffered a major loss of blood. Other members of the gang were killed and Ned was nursed back to health with the intention of then executing him. He was hanged on 11th November 1880, aged 25. Below is a death mask taken of his shaven head after his execution which is on display at the Gaol. Well worth a visit in Melbourne.

To the North of Melbourne, in Victoria, lies the site of a former gold rush. The cities of Ballarat and Bendigo and some smaller towns and villages (such as Maldon) all bear the hallmarks of a bygone age when money was plentiful and lovely buildings could be constructed. Ballarat has an Avenue of Honour (with a tree planted for each enlisted serviceman) which is over 20km long which makes for quite an entrance to the city.

It was great to be able to stop off and see some slightly unexpected and lovely architecture in smaller places. Bendigo was especially good – nice to go somewhere with fewer people after the bigger cities too!

If you only ever visit big cities on your travels, you can miss out…and you can’t really say you have experienced the culture of somewhere like you can if you head elsewhere.

One thing I have discovered over time is that the best way to see anywhere is to get out of the main cities and off the beaten track a bit. Try to avoid main roads if you can. Take yourself down a dirt road and see what you see. Put yourself in a slightly uncomfortable situation (without danger of course). To this end, I visited the Grampians National Park in Victoria (staying at Halls Gap) and the Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales (staying at Blackheath). Both were ideal bases to do a spot of walking. We had a lot of fog while in the Blue Mountains, but that gives a totally different atmosphere and didn’t spoil things.

It is a real privilege to see large flocks of wild parrots and kangaroos (and close up too!). On the flip-side it is really sad to see the amount of roadkill of large, gentle marsupials – I only saw a live wombat in the zoo…I saw far more dead ones by the road.

Victoria and New South Wales are surprisingly green…but scratch under the surface and you see parched earth and the characteristic red soil particular to Australia. Water is a precious resource not to be squandered.

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